Thompson Family-Life

Man, I'm pooped.

Sorry, i just had to get that out. Unpleasant title for a post, I know. Like I said, just had to get it out. ;-) One needy child with a double ear infection that won't go away (tubes, here we come?) and another child that won't go to sleep, and keeps getting up, and up, and up. Walks in here one minute saying "My eye hurts."... the next minute "My leg itches."... the next minute "My eyebrow hurts."... you know, just excuses to give him a reason to get out of bed! argh. I get to the point where I just can't hold my serious and mad-parent-face and I just LAUGH. Because it's funny. And sometimes having to be a serious-business-mom can get really exhausting. Lol. Like I said, I'm tired. ;-) Hence, my rambles.

So on to more coherant thoughts (hopefully)...

So, feeling overwhelmed with getting ready for Cam's birthday party next weekend. This usually happens about a week beforehand when we have parties. They are really just an excuse to get alot done around the house. You know, yard work, washing down the house that is still covered in pollen, cleaning, projects you always put off, home decor projects... It's always great after the party is over because we got so much done, but overwhelming until it all gets done! :-) Phew. We'll get there. Gotta type out my To-Do list. Is there an Overachiever's Anonymous group you know of? Has my name written all over it. :::::::::sigh::::::::::

Finished some Mother's Day gifts this week that I thought I'd share. I think i'm officially tired of doing silhouettes. Lol! Glad I got these all done though, I think they turned out nice. These were MUCH easier than the handcut ones I did, to say the least. Did these all digitally, then added the digital patterned paper background. The first, for my mom. The second, for my mother-in-law who has 5 grandchildren. Had the first printed and framed at Shutterfly.com. Didn't get to see it, as I had it shipped straight to my mom, but she said it really turned out great! I never use Shutterfly, but the price for printing and framing was reasonable.

Also made some of these for my grandmothers for Mother's day that I packaged up with some fun stuff from my stash.

(supplies: Paper Lace from Etsy, Velvet strawberries from SpeckledEgg.com, Lace from Etsy, Fabric and flat felt strawberries and tomatoes: Martha Stewart Crafts, Velvet Ribbon: SpeckledEgg.com, Gingham paper: source unknown, Other wrapping paper: Vintage wrapping paper found on Ebay.)

Did you guys handmake any Mother's Day gifts? I'd love to see them if so! Link me up! :-)

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Remember these vintage patterns I posted here many, many months ago?

I found someone to sew 2 outfits for me for Campbell from my patterns. And finally got them back in the past week or two! I ADORE them. **ADORE** I still say there is MUCH MUCH MUCH room for improvement when it comes to boys clothing. Even in the handmade market, it's very much lacking IMO. I've found a few sellers that are innovative in their designs for boys, but not alot. I think there's more to handmade clothing than just a screenprinted shirt. (although some of those are great too. ;-) If I had lots of free time, and the boys were in school, oh, and some $$$$$, i'd definitely think of creating a boy's line of handmade clothing. Who knows, maybe one day? :-) I had my first machine sewing class this week, so if I can actually learn how to use that thing, I think the sky is the limit!

So anyway, I just love vintage patterns. I picked out the fabrics myself. I think baby boys (and bigger boys!) can really benefit from the cool patterned fabrics out there, without looking girly! It's possible! And YES boys can wear flowers too! It's O.K.A.Y. :-) Especially retro flowers.

I couldn't get the best photos of this outfit... he is all over the place these days. ;-) I think I'm going to embroider a mushroom on the front of these overalls. :-) There is mushroom fabric on one of his pockets. I should start looking for vintage clothing too for boys.. and then embroider fun stuff on them.. how cute would that be? :-)

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Ok, better get back to my list. I really should just go to bed. I'm exhausted. Lol. I am predicting another sleepless night with a sick baby. :-( Poo Boo! I've got some fun things I'm making for the party that I will share when I finish. And I decided to do the terrarium idea for the kids! I figure it's a cool party favor for them to take home, it's environmentally friendly, and I won't be wasting money on other crap like candy or other cheap toys that will just end up in the trash. What kid really needs more toys? And their fun to make because they're messy. ;-) But easy to do.

I hope it doesn't rain! Good thing we have a carport they can do them under if it does. I bought some really cute miniatures to go in them that I will share in the next couple days!

And thanks for the kind comments on the deer and bird containers! :-) I also wanted to mention that Heidi at MyPaperCrane mentioned me on her blog this week, which was so sweet! It's such a small world. She commented on my last post and I couldn't believe it when I saw her "MyPaperCrane" email address. I'm such a fan of her work and her site. You MUST check out the CUTENESS in her shop and also her blog! :-)

Also, saw this today in my Reader... HOW.CUTE!!!!!!! I must make one since I know how to crochet now! :-) Love the ruffles. And it's a small project. I like those. I'm impatient. It will go faster than this blanket I've been wanting to make. Lol!

Bell Jar

*Edited to add: If you've asked a question in Comments on any of my recent posts, I've gone back and answered them in those Comments sections. Thanks!*

I've been so inspired by the use of the bell jar in home decor lately. Or variations on this.. any sort of glass container to hold any number of little things. I found these two glass pieces at Hobby Lobby (i mean, what CAN'T you find at Hobby Lobby I ask you? ;-) They had so many different shapes and sizes. They also had a bunch at Michael's in the floral aisle. I love the idea of terrariums as well which I see alot of these days on blogs and in design. I even saw them used as party favors at a child's party! What a cute idea! There's just something so neat about a little world growing behind glass.

There's actually a shop on Etsy (of course!) that sells terrariums and then how can you not love this painting by this lady. :-) So charming. (Speaking of, I just love Emily's newest painting, a redhead! Be still my beating heart!)

So I knew I wanted to make some arrangements to put inside some glass jars. (Of course my initial inspiration was from Katie Runnels who i've mentioned several times here. She has a new wreath, by the way, in her shop and is also thinking of making kits of her wreaths.. pop into her blog and let her know if you're interested!) And I've been gathering items all over the place to put inside. Most I've shown here already.

The deer were from ebay (as I've mentioned) and the vintage flocked birds on Etsy. When I saw them I just LOVED the colors. So bright and quirky. The mushrooms, also vintage (made in Germany!) from Etsy. The small and large nests and moss I bought at Michaels Crafts. The branches were from my back yard. The little blue eggs from (appropriately) Speckled Egg. :-)

Right now I have these arranged on top of my new blue cabinet. See why I'd like to paint that exposed brick white? (or maybe even a -gasp- COLOR!) So these items will stand out better. I'm also wanting to change out those pictures on the wall. Think we need some new family pics? Lol. Poor Campbell. Does anyone else do this? Take millions of photos every month, but never update the photos around your house? That is me. Campbell is hardly on the walls! Sad. BUT i DID finally put his "CAMPBELL" letters up in his room. It only took me almost a year to do it. Lol. ;-) For that whole year it said "COOPER" in big letters in his nursury. :::::sigh:::::

Some other things inspiring me....

I LOOVE these hair thingies. What do you call them? They are so so beautiful. Wish I could wear these in my hair every day. Wish I lived in a world where it was normal to wear big frillie things in your hair every day. And where all men wore hats. :-) For now I'll stick with my baseball cap. (ah, living as a mom in the 'burbs. lol! glamorous!)

I always want to wear things in my hair, like headbands (i cannot tell you how many headbands i have!), but they always give me headaches.. I always have good intentions of wearing fashionable things, but they just end up annoying me or they just look stupid on me. Lol. I have REALLY good taste when it comes to fashion.. just in my HEAD, not in my ACTIONS. :-)

I also REALLY love these. I'm going to make one for me. I've been wanting to learn how to make a yo-yo anyway. There's a great tutorial here!

Loving these satchels.

This yarn is to die for!

How beautiful is this hat?

LOVVVEEE these gnome embroidery patterns!

This top? oh so neat. But I would look like a clown in it. Again, in my HEAD I would look cute in this. :-)

Things made out of vintage drapes and sheets. Happiness!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! And thanks again for all of the sweet comments.

A Whole Lotta Photos of Campbell & Travelin'

Sorry... but this is going to be a Campbell-heavy post. Lol. I did a little "shoot" with him last week of photos I wanted to use on his birthday party invite. He turns the big O-N-E this month so we are having a big party to celebrate! (And really it's just an excuse to have adults over. Who are we kidding here. Campbell won't know what's going on. ;-) But it IS very exciting! :-)

I need to be better about writing about milestones and things the boys are doing each month. I see so many good mommas out there blogging and listing off the little quirky things their kids do. I need to do that too. This blog is really more about me and my hobbies, but since I don't keep a journal and don't scrapbook anymore, I need to make sure I'm "writing" these things down, at least on my blog. It is called "Thompson-Family Life" after all. ;-)

So anyway, here are the pics! I got so many good ones from this one shoot, which is so rare. We both really had alot of fun. :-) (Although he did eat some scary things out of the yard while we were in the grass and I got a really fun rash all over my legs since I had shorts on. I was lying all over the place trying to get good, low shots, so my legs were just covered in little red bumps - no doubt an allergic reaction to the grass. FUN TIMES! We suffer for our photos, right?)

I dragged my antique-chair-find out to the front yard again. That chair has given me my money's worth that is for sure (and probably a bad back as I'm the one usually carrying it outside!) Remember this particular birthday?

I'm so so SO behind on answering emails and answering questions here. (what's new?) I'm going to try and knock that out today. For now I'll give some details on my photos in case anyone has any questions on that (since I do get alot of questions about photo processing, etc.) I used LilyBlue and DeLight actions on some of these, and some I just did normal color. I ADORE both of these sets of actions. The DeLight ones have some really cool vintage affects. A really interesting variety. In the LilyBlue action set, I really only use the "Honey" action, but i use it alot. The one where he's on his stomach in the grass is the Honey action.

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I wanted to mention that I was featured on the Decor8, DesignSponge and CRAFT design blogs recently, which is totally exciting. I submitted my silhouettes to D*S and my wall decals to Decor8 and was so surprised that they wanted to feature them. I read those blogs everyday so this was a treat for me. Also, CRAFT is another great blog. I've seen a few things of mine on there recently as well which is really cool. So I just wanted to say "Hi" to anyone that has come to my blog via those blogs. Aren't they great?! I had alot of questions about if I sell the decals, and I don't. :-( I'm sorry! Just made them for me. Maybe one day?

And on another note, I was reading this post from Holly at Decor8 yesterday and felt very inspired. SO cool that she will have TWO places to call home, and all because she and her husband SAVED money. Now, my husband will laugh, as I'm NOT the best saver of money. No, no, no. ;-) BUT, from about 2000-2002, Ethan and I saved up our pennies all for one goal: to travel Europe, for three months. We were SO disciplined about saving. I couldn't imagine saving like that now, but it was the best thing we could've ever done.

I had wanted to start a family and Ethan convinced me that if we could save money for a while, that we could do this, and THEN start a family. Thank goodness we waited. Because our Europe adventure will probably go down as one of THE best experiences we've ever had. We quit our jobs and just DID it. People thought we were crazy. (it's odd for Americans to take a 3 month vacation. Lol!) I can't even put into words how amazing it was, and to this day we talk about wanting to retrace that trip when we're "old". ;-) (er, when the kids are out of college.)

So reading about Holly's new adventure, I couldn't help but smile and say "I know. I've been there. And it's so cool." To be able to reap the rewards of your patience and discipline with saving money. You can travel the world and you can have multiple homes, and you DON'T have to be rich. It's is possible! I love that! And goodness knows we were still on a budget when we traveled, but we enjoyed every second of that trip.

It's been hard the past couple years not being able to travel like we used to. We were determined to travel with our kids, even when they were babies.. we did that with Cooper, and it just didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped. He went to Spain and Germany all within one year of his life! It was crazy. Lol! The first time he was about a year and a half, and he got sick in Spain. Then in Germany, he was approaching his terrible-twos, and Lord was he ever *TERRIBLE* on that trip! ACK! So we decided to wait til the kids were at a more manageable stage to do the more hardcore traveling. Luckily I have helpful parents that will keep the boys for lengthy amounts of time so Ethan and I can travel alone.

We can't WAIT to travel the world with our boys. We want to get a map for Coop's room so he can put pins in the places he's gone. He's already saying he wants to go to "Jer-pan" (otherwise known as Japan ;-).... I saw this on Flickr the other day and it made me so excited for our future as a Travelin'-family. :-)

We have dreams of living overseas one day. I don't know if it will ever happen, but one can dream, right? :-)

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Other random stuff:

Loving The Weepies. Love their new album. I saw them on the homepage of Itunes one day and I knew I had read about them before, so I downloaded them. It was a wise decision. :-)

Also, Ethan and I (FINALLY!) watched the movie Once and La Vie en Rose. Both were equally INCREDIBLE. The soundtrack to Once is a MUST! And holy cow the transformation of Marion Cotillard was amazing. She is incredible.

Here are a few other random photos to share... the first is a gift I made my mother-in-law for her birthday. Gemmielou did the little people and I glued them inside a shadowbox that I lined with patterned paper. I added the frame transparencies from Hambly and then handwrote their names in the center. All the grandkids. :-) The other photos are just 2 random 365 photos. The weekend is near! :-)

Garland

I don't know what spurred this on, but for the past few months I've been obsessed with making paper flowers. I've been looking online collecting links on how to make them. They ranged from very simple methods (the kind you make with your kids) to the very complicated and sophisticated (a la Martha Stewart). I ended up using a method that combined the two: instructions for making paper flowers with your kids, via Martha Stewart's website. Lol!

The first style I tried was this one... the directions were pretty easy, but I wasn't able to find any stamins locally and I wasn't about to order some online, so mine just didn't hold up too well. And the petals just didn't look as pretty as Martha's. ;-) So i was like, I'm going the easy route. Even used the pipe cleaners. :-) And they really turned out beautiful! They are easy and pretty fast to make, and I'm already addicted. There are so many uses for these.

I used crepe paper (just the cheapy kind from Joann Crafts. The colors fit what I like, nice and bright. I'm sure there are even better resources online with a wider range of colors that aren't so bright. I found sheets of it in the party decoration aisle. Martha even gives directions on how to make flowers from crepe paper streamers, but for some reason I couldn't get that method down. The directions were a little vague.)... and I also used tissue paper.

I knew I wanted to use the flowers on some sort of home decoration. Then I thought of a garland. I strung the flowers on some embroidery floss, along with various beads, crocheted flowers, my gingham and satin rosettes, some felted balls and also some large pom-poms I made from yarn. (I never EVER tire of pom-poms! :-) In fact, the flowers remind me of pom-poms.) I also tied some lace, pom-pom trim and yarn in different places along the way.

I really love how this turned out and I'm already thinking of something else I want to do with them. I saw this on Wren Handmade's blog one day and fell in love with it's pom-pom-wonderfulness. I saw that she got it at the Polish Center in NYC, so I looked it up to see if I could buy one. They do sell them there online, but they're a bit pricey. So I think I'll make something similar to it. A mobile of sorts. Or I can pick one up when I'm in NYC. ;-) Think that would be just a LITTLE cumbersome carying that around? lol!

So here are some pics of the garland... (please excuse some of the wide pics where you can see all of my laundry that I need to fold and my messy kitchen table. Keep your eyes on the garland, people. Stay focused! lol! )

I think I must have lived in Portugal or Brazil in another life, because I'm so drawn to these bright, exotic colors. I'm find myself being drawn to Portuguese and Brazillian artists on Flickr lately... people I stumble upon from other crafty flickr pages and other blogs.

And don't you love those 2 little deer? I've got a project in mind for them too. They are vintage from Japan. Got one of them on Ebay for $5, and the seller let me have the other one because it had been damaged. But she fixed the damaged part and everything! She said she didn't want to throw it away. How cool. :-)

Here are some other paper flower technique links I found:

here

here

here

Another random thing I read on a blog today: this is SO COOL. I totally want to do this, especially now that Cooper seems to really be into drawing lately. I can't help but get a little giddy at the idea of him inheriting the creative gene. :-)

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Embroidered Baby Gift

So I finished my project! Gave it to the mother on Saturday at her baby shower. She seemed to really like it... it was a hit with all the moms! This thing wore me out because I waited til the last minute to do it, so it was hardcore embroidering for about 3 days and the canvas on this is thicker than what I'm used to working on, so I needed a thimble! But didn't have one. My fingers were hurting! But now I have to admit I miss this project. But I'm glad it's in good hands. :-) Ethan even said he missed seeing these little guys!

I found the blank hanging organizer at Michaels and the patterns are of course Wee Wonderfuls Stitchettes (#3 Winter '07 and #4 Spring '07). I altered the little guy holding the fawn a bit, excluding the fur collar since the other 2 were more springy looking. The banner and letters are from Sublime Stitching.

I think I've become addicted to that fusible interfacing I used on the silhouette plaques. I used it for the patterned fabric that I embroidered the name and banner on, and also the other circle patterned fabric cut-outs on a couple of the pockets. Since I'm not sewing with my machine yet (lessons in May! can't wait!), this interfacing makes it easy for me to use fabric on projects. I used felt on the other circles on the pockets and then buttons.

I stuffed some of the pockets with other baby gifts: rolled up onesies, little newborn shoes, and the little gloves you put on newborns so they don't scratch. I figured the actual organizer could be used for so many things. To hold baby shoes, and later down the road maybe art supplies, little cars.. whatever really! :-)

Then I just rolled it up and tied ribbon around it.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! :-)

Renaissance, Day with the Hubby, Decor Inspiration

So another hodge podge post. Trying to get in a post while Cooper is napping. It's a race against the clock! I know you moms know what i mean! lol!

First, I know I owe a bunch of people emails and answers to questions that have been asked in Comments on some of my last posts. As usual, I'm behind. But I always catch up. :-) I promise to catch up soon. I will let you know when I have, so you can check back in the comments sections for my answers. Unfortunately answering email and other questions seems to be low on the priority list, you know, things like feeding my kids, um, sleeping, ummm, doing laundry, cleaning the dirty, sticky floors. You know all that important stuff that we all hate to do. Lol!

We went to the GA Renaissance Festival last weekend which was fun. Only there can you see a sight like this and it be totally normal. :-) (and sorry, no time to make these pics look pretty! just adjusted Curves a little for contrast!)

I've always wanted to go to this just for the experience. It's an experience alright. Lol! But totally fun for your kids, especially boys! There's TONS of stuff to do. You really get your money's worth I think.

I toted Cam around in my Baby Bisou backpack which was fun. He squirms alot, but he seemed to like it okay. And eventually he fell asleep in it. So sweet. I think this is a really cute pack and REALLY easy to wear. We have one of those big backpack contraptions that Ethan usually wears. It is one of those heavy duty ones for more adventure type toting... hiking, whatever. But I told Ethan that this could very well be my last chance at baby-carrying, and I want to do it in style. ;-) And I only have a short amount of time to do it as this boy is a BIG-BOY! HEAVY! And wearing him in the front just doesn't work anymore because he IS so heavy! :-) I hadn't seen alot of baby carriers for back carrying. Most of the really cute ones I see out there (with pretty patterned fabric) are more for smaller babies, or wearing in the front. I knew that wouldn't work for me. I saw this on one of the many mommy blogs in my Reader and loved it!

Coop got this really cool dragon painted on his face. :-)

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Ethan and I got to hang out all day yesterday sans kids which was WAY WAY cool since we very very rarely get that opportunity. :-) Usually it's just a few hours if the in-laws keep them. This was a WHOLE DAY. And it was a beautiful one at that. The pollen seems to be tapering off a LITTLE. At least the stuff you can see. So that was nice.

They recently opened a new Urban Outfitters in an area that we frequent. NOT in a mall, thank goodness, as we just don't do malls that often. We really hate malls. It's a free-standing one. And since I do most of my shopping online and VERY VERY rarely shop in an actual store, to get to go to one of my favs in person was a total treat for me. And it was sensory overload. Everywhere I looked I was gasping with excitement! Especially when we got to the home decor section. Forget the clothes, the home decor stuff knocks my socks off. I was FREAKING!!! SO SO SO inspiring.

 

Especially this little area of Indian inspired items. This is *SO ME*. The colors. The ethnic feel to everything. THIS is why I want to go to India SO BAD. Not to mention Japan as well. We've always had alot of ethnic color, patterns, textiles in our home inpired by our travels to places like Spain and Mexico. And to see these exotic influences and colors popping up in the trends right now makes me so happy. :-) Things that are already in my home are all the sudden "in style", so i'm like.. wow! i'm "in style" and didn't have to spend a dime! ... no wait, of course I do. ;-) There's always more to want. Lol!

I mean hello? that seat cushion? and this one? To die for. (I want to make one.. looks kind of Crewel-ish right? Maybe i can find a pattern! And i'm so into embroidery right now!) Love this curio shelf. Love these lanterns. And these candy colored candle sticks! I told Ethan I wanted this (actually, the ones in the store are a bit different and i like them better... see photos above) and he said he'd make a mental note. :-) But now i'm wondering if i want the curio shelf.... decisions!

Some more inspiration for this look:

I LOVE LOVE Anna Maria Horner. Love her fabric. And mostly I just love her decor style in her home. Her colors are just right on. :-)

Also one of my flickr favs is Eclectic Gypsyland. Need I say more? :-) She lives in france and has INCREDIBLE taste. I'm so inpired by her. Her color is also AMAZING. I'm making this bag! and she is so generous with her crochet knowledge! :-)

I also LOVE LOVE these.

I also of course love Urban Outfitters' retro inspired stuff, like those big green ceramic owls you see in one of the pics above. :-)

And of course all of the fun kitschy stuff... like this little Buddha i bought. (i think it's Buddha) I just love kitschy Indian and Japanese stuff like that and this. They have so much more in the store than online too! I love this little orange guy. He's tiny.

We also went to one of our favorite places to eat, Highland Bakery. Definitely a must in Atlanta. Despite the name, they also have great breakfast and lunch. Such a cool place. And AMAZING pastries! I want to try one of their cupcakes sometime. They always have interesting art on the walls.

 

So it was such a fun day!

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I've been working on a baby shower gift day and night the past few days... i started it so last minute and it's turned into a bigger project than i expected (of course! I asked ethan last night if it was bad that i'm an overachiever. He just said, "It's just in your nature." I guess that's ok. ;-) I hope to finish it tonight in time for the shower tomorrow. Will post pics soon. Here's a sneak peek. I'm using some Wee Wonderfuls stitchettes (my first time!) I love her designs! So cute and charming! We never know anyone that has girls, so i'm hoping my sister has a girl (hint, she is recently pregnant! Everyone CONGRATS to my sister Shelly! It's her first! :-) The girl stitchettes are equally as cute. I need a reason to use them. :-) Although I would easily make them for myself. Lol!

Have a great weekend everyone! And thank you so much for all of your sweet comments.

Happy Things on a Sick Day

Things keeping me happy on this day of sickness for both Campbell and I. :-( Pink-eye that won't go away for me, the usual sinuses, cough, allergies for me also during this lovely Georgia pollen season... two "very bad" ear infections for the Boo (per the Doctor), and also watery eyes and runny, snotty nose, no doubt due to the pollen season as well. :-( Oh, and Campbell's very FIRST fever to date. Unbelievable right?

We are sickies today.

So I took some quick pics of things that are keeping me happy... mostly keeping my eyes happy with lots of happy color. :-) Lots of yummy, bright, saturated color, just like I like it.

Could be my favorite necklace of all time. I got it for NYC. I wanted to look cute and colorful. (lol!) Think the Manhattanites will think I'm crazy? ;-) I mean really, how CHIC are felt balls? Am I right? ;-)

Beautiful things from talented artists. :-)

Vintage German plastic mushrooms for an upcoming home decor project sitting on a Kashmir tray.

Trail of gingham and satin roses for an upcoming craft project... just love looking at these. :-) Love the way the light is hitting them too. Beautiful day outside.

Silky curls just beginning to show themselves. :-)

And belly laughs last night after seeing Cooper put his "camping pillow" on his head like this. I haven't belly laughed like this in SOOO long! It actually made me sad to think I hadn't laughed like that in such a long time. I couldn't remember the last time. And don't ask me why I thought it was funny. It just was.

One must have a belly laugh at least once a week, no? It's good for the heart and the soul. He looked just like an Oompa Loompa. (although apparently they had green hair.. i thought it was blue.) And I made him do it over, and over, and OVER again. I swear I was meant to be a mom to boys. The "adult woman" who is still the first person in the room to laugh if someone farts. ;-)

(As Ethan sighs..........)

:-) What can I say, farts still make me laugh. There could be worse things I guess. ;-)

Ok, back to the gooey, green, snot-wiping. FUN TIMES! YAY!

Silhouette Plaque

This is another one of those projects I've had in my head that I've been wanting to do for MONTHS! I told Ethan this week that I was just needing to craft. I definitely think that when you are a creative person, it's almost like eating, sleeping, drinking... you just NEED it, you know? I know you guys understand! Luckily I have such a fantastic and supportive husband that was like, "take a day for yourself and craft. Do what you need to do!"

I haven't had alot of time to create for the past couple weeks. Working more hours. And when I'm home with the boys or the whole family on weekends, I just feel guilty spending time crafting when I could be spending time with them. :-) I try to not craft while the kids are around, I still get on the computer I must admit, but I don't like crafting just because it gets too chaotic and I can't really concentrate with them underfoot. ;-) I'm a VERY focused crafter! LOL! I wish I could be one of those moms that is really laid back and just embraces the chaos. I really want to start crafting more with my kids.. I really don't do much of it at all. I feel really bad about that. My goal is to start embracing the messyness, you know? That is what being a kid is about. :-) I guess when I craft, I can keep things SEMI-neat and organized. But with kids, you just gotta be messy. Organized chaos is what I'm trying to learn. :-)

I am always amazed when people say they love to craft with other people. I just can't get anything done when people are around.. lol! Mostly because I'm so focused on what I'm doing that I probably wouldn't even talk to anyone! ;-)

I guess it depends on the craft really. Embroidery is pretty mindless, so that's easy to do with other people. With crochet I'm still really having to FOCUS on the patterns, so if I'm crocheting, I am 100% focused on it. Ask Ethan. Don't even try to talk to me if I'm crocheting as the blood vessels in my eyeballs are bulging from the shear concentration. Lol. Those patterns are like a foreign language to me right now! But I'm getting there.

So anyway, I digress. I think it's because I'm still inhaling varnish fumes from this project. ;-)

So, cameos or silhouettes are very popular right now EVERYWHERE! In fashion and decor. I've been wanting to make one of Cooper for years now and now that Cam is here, I really wanted to make one of both and display them together. I had thought about creating them on the computer, but then had the idea of actually cutting them out and adhering them to these wooden plaques you can get at craft stores. I wanted to use patterned fabric for a background. Of course I had to make it difficult and use fabric instead of patterned paper, but that is me. ::::SIGH:::::

I just wanted a more tactile, textured, layered feel to it, rather than a flat graphic look I could do on the computer. (Although I do plan on doing some more silhouettes soon strictly with this method, on the computer and then maybe using a digital patterned background, and then just printing the entire thing and framing. No cutting required!)

I wasn't sure what process I was going to use to get from the photo profile to the cut-out from black paper.. i hadn't really thought about it too much, but yesterday the DAY before I was going to work on this, the stars aligned and someone posted a method on how to do it on one of the design blogs I read (stalk). ;-) So I was like, YES! This is an easy, straightforward method i can use! It worked pretty well!

So I thought I'd put together a Tutorial on how I did my project to post here. I LOVE online tutorials. I love it when people post them on their blogs. So I thought I'd do one too. Sorry for the not so pretty photos, but they are just instructional.. no bells and whistles!

I tried to put together a supplies photo. I didn't use everything in this photo, and some things I used aren't even in the photo. Lol.. but this is the general idea.

Supply List:

-Wooden Plaque
-Self-healing mat
- Camera
- Plain printer paper / Printer
- Stapler or Tape
- Mod-Podge (or whatever glue you like)
- Xacto knife
- A handful of blades
- Tracing Paper
- Fabric (or you can use patterned paper which is easier!)
- Acrylic paint
- Varnish (the liquid kind, not the spray.. I know. I tried. Lol! NOT a good look AT ALL.)
- Paint brushes
- Foam brushes
- Black acid free paper
- Fusible Interfacing
- Scissors
- (optional) antiquing solution (i was going to use it but ended up not, depends on what look you're going for)
- Sandpaper

Step One: First you need a photo of the person you're making the silhouette of. I used my flash so it would really make my boys stand out from the background so I could really see the lines of the silhouette. I would say use a dark background if the person is light-skinned with light hair, and a light background if the person is darker-skinned with dark hair. I used a dark background on both kids, and Cooper's hair got a little lost b/c it was dark. So you'll just have to figure out the best way to get a good photo. Thinking about it now, maybe a medium hue background would be best. (As you can tell, this is still trial and error for me! :-) Make sure that your subject is at a 90 degree angle to get the best profile you can get. If you have a baby that can't sit up, just lie your baby down, stand directly over their face with them lying to the side.

Step Two: Bring your photo into Photoshop (or whatever program you use) and enlarge it or reduce it to the actual size you want your final profile to be. For these plaques I made them around 5 inches tall from top of the head to base of the neck. Then print your photo out. Just print on plain cheap paper.

Step Three: Tape your printout to your self-healing mat, then tape a piece of tracing paper to the top of that. With a pencil, trace around the profile. Make sure you get all of the little bumps or curls in the hair. This gives it more detail and interest. Be very careful when you're tracing and make sure you use a good sharpened pencil. Every little nook and cranny of a nose or mouth will really make a difference in the end result really LOOKING like the person.

Step Four: Pull off the tracing paper and remove the photo and set it aside. Then tape your black paper to the self-healing mat and then the tracing paper on top of that. Then you will cut out your profile. I used an Xacto, but you can also use scissors. I have to admit that this is the really tough part and takes alot of patience. Make sure you have a new sharp blade. I had to do Cam's twice and Cooper's 3 times before I got them "perfect". Just the littlest miss of your blade can totally change the look of your profile, it's amazing really. Just shaving of a little of a chin or a little of a nose can make it not even LOOK like the person. So have patience. lol. ;-)

Step Five: Once you've finished cutting, pull off your tracing paper. Then pull your profile from the black paper. You might have little areas that weren't cut all the way through, so go back and fine tune it so you can pull it away from the paper. Be very careful and slow so that you don't tear anything. If you have to use a new blade, use one. Once you're happy with your profile, set it aside.

Step Six: Now you will need to iron your fusible interfacing to your fabric. Follow the directions that come with the interfacing. I had never used this stuff before, but it was fairly easy. Watch Top Chef while you iron (like I did last night.. LOVE.THAT.SHOW! :-)

Step Seven: Now it's time to add your fabric to your plaque. Take tracing paper and lay it on top of the plaque, then outline the top shape with a pencil. This is the shape that your fabric (or patterned paper) will take. Put your plaque aside, and then tape your traced paper to your fabric. Then cut around the shape with some good scissors.

Step Eight: Now you will need to adhere the cut-out fabric shape to your plaque. Apply your glue with a wide foam brush to the top of the plaque (not the beveled sides) and then apply glue to the back of your fabric shape as well. Now place it on top of the plaque and smooth with your fingers.

Step Nine: Now apply glue to the back of your silhouette and adhere it to the center of your plaque.

Step Ten: Now it's time to paint the sides of your plaque!

Step Eleven: Now if you're really anal-retentive like me, you can seal the edges of your fabric shape with no-fray stuff. I would probably recommend it even though your plaque isn't going to get much wear and tear on the wall.

Step Twelve: Now the following step is what gave me the most trouble (well, next to cutting out my silhouettes five times, but that's ok. ;-) So I was your guinea pig on this one. I had planned on varnishing the entire thing, which I did with spray varnish. NOT such a good idea. The first coat went on fine, but then the second coat started making bubbles on the Cooper silhouette. (So I had to REDO his silhouette. Just made it slightly larger and glued on top of the old silhouette.)

SOO, I ran to Michael's on an emergency LIQUID varnish trip. ;-) That worked better. *BUT!!*, after varnishing everything, I can tell you that it would probably be best to just NOT varnish the fabric at all. The varnish doesn't cover it well and it just sort of seaps into the fabric in some areas, and then doesn't on others. Looks uneven. Nothing horrible, but if/when I do this again, I won't varnish the fabric part. In fact, you could skip the varnishing all together if you want. But I wanted the painted areas to have a glossy finish, and a coat of varnish on the actual paper silhouette looks nice and rich. Gives the black paper a deeper hue.

You can add antiqueing solution before you varnish if you want an aged look to your piece. Also, another TIP, one thing I'm noticing on mine is that when i brushed the varnish over the entire top, some of the black from the black paper silhouette bled a little onto the fabric. It's very subtle, but in hindsight (again, Mrs. Guinea Pig here), it would probably be better to just varnish the silhouette before you glue it to the plaque, that way it won't bleed. (If you don't plan on varnishing the fabric like I suggested.)

If you WANTED the entire thing to be varnished though, i guess you could use that REALLY thick stuff and just pour it over it.. know what I'm talking about? I saw it at Michael's today. It's really thick. They use it on like dining tables at restaurants if there are decoupaged images? Almost like resin maybe? anihooo....

So that's it! When I do the digitally created silhouettes I'll share that method too. (i'm sure there are already tutorials out there in fact! :-)

I think these would also be fun to do one every year of your child and then after maybe 6 years or so, you could put them all together one after another as sort of a storyboard to show how them (and their profiles!) have changed. I hope to do that with Campbell since I'll have the forethought to take profile pics every year.. maybe i can look back thru Cooper's pics and find some accidental profile pics. ;-)

Another project that sort of happened last minute today was this crochet flower/granny square display frame that I hung with the plaques. I knew I wanted the plaques to go in our guest bathroom. This horizontal picture frame was already in there but I didn't like the photos in it anymore and wanted something new. So I found these crocheted flowers that Lu made me a long time ago (LU YOU SO ROCK! still using these babies!) and my two crochet squares that I recently made, and some felted balls and just stuck them in between the glass and backing. Didn't even have to glue them. I used fabric as my background. I love how this turned out. What a fun easy project!

And just a photo of my new anniversary present from Ethan. This cabinet from Pier One Imports. I fell in love with this thing when I saw it on a design blog one day! That exposed brick is going to be painted white hopefully soon (along with our very 70's fireplace in the same room. Been wanting to paint this brick white since we moved in TEN years ago. I'm hoping it will actually happen now!)

Please link me to your projects if you end up making a silhouette plaque! :-) Would love to see!

 

I feel so out of the blogging groove! I've been wanting to post, but just can't seem to find alot of time to steal away lately. So much to be inspired by though lately... Unfortunately I don't ever seem to have alot of time to take photos of what I want to blog about either... so here's some pics I've taken semi-recently that will have to do. :-)

I recently found the most AMAZING vintage quilt on CraigsList. I have been on the hunt for a good one for a while now, so I'm always surfing here and there looking for one online. So many of them are just SO pricey on Ebay, so I checked Craigslist one day for the heck of it, and I found a really cool funky looking one for $25! The photos of it weren't that great, but it looked like a crazy-quilt-style with an eclectic mix of vintage fabrics from what I could tell, and i was like "well, for $25, I'll take it!" But then when I met the owner and saw it in person I about fainted... it is SO AWESOME! I need to take some close up pics of it soon, but you can see it here as a backdrop I used for some photos of Campbell.

 

I'm so pleased with these and it doesn't hurt that I always have such a happy baby that is willing to smile for my camera. I've had this shot in my head for a long time and it's cool to see it come to fruition. You just never know if something in your head is going to work out very well. I'm not looking forward to when Cam can walk and starts to run AWAY from the camera! I remember those days with Cooper! Luckily, Cooper is finally in a semi-good phototaking stage. I think a whole year went with me hardly taking photos of him.. i think his entire 3rd year. Lol!

The quilt is in such great condition. I was so happy! The vintage cradle I bought before Campbell was born and I finally found a time to use it. Of course Ethan asked "How many times did he fall out of it?"... not once. :-) As you can see, Spring is in full swing here. What you can't see in these pics is the layers and layers of awful yellowness that is pollen around here. THAT is a whole other story. UGH. This weekend it looked like a nuclear holocaust with this yellow haze EVERYWHERE. It was quite eerie actually. I'm not looking forward to having to hose the entire house down once pollen season is over.

On a positive note though, with pollen comes beautiful flowers and I forget how lucky we are to have SO many dogwood trees in our yard. They are just beautiful. And the usually pathetic looking azalea's are looking pretty in pink! Here's Cooper posing with a Dogwood... not so eagerly. ;-)

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I wanted to post some pics from my Memphis trip that I never got around to... some from our Wreath-Making Craft Night and some other random family pics. Great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, sisters, parents... lots o' family. ;-) I know, we're all so OVER Easter, sorry! :-)

Ok, so this post is getting really photo heavy.. i'm going to create another post for later this week

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I wanted to ask if any of you know of a good rounded-corner-action for photos? I get asked this question alot and I just don't feel comfortable selling an action of my own at this point. If you know of a good one that people can buy, can you link us in the comments? THANKS!

Also some people asked about what patterns I used on the pillow case.. here are the ISBN #'s of the books I used. For the sash looking thing that has "Nanny" inside of it, that is by Sublime Stitching. I think in this book: Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To .

The girl sleeping I got from this book: ISBN4-529-04238-3 (japanese embroidery book)

The other animals/mushrooms, etc from here: ISBN4-8347-2421-2 (also a japanese embroidery book)

I think I found both of these at Superbuzzy.com. Hope this helps!

ALSO, THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH for all of the NYC advice!!! I can't tell you how much it has helped! Keep it coming. :-)

She & Him and NYC

Quick post, but I wanted to rave about some new music I've been listening to and also ask some traveling advice! :-)

Some of you may have heard of this already, but I wanted to tell you about Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's new collaboration called She & Him, Volume One. It is be-still-my-beating-heart-INCREDIBLE. Just so unique and fresh. I've always had a girl-crush on Zooey, (um, and so has Ethan! lol!) from her movies, so to get to see her in a totally different medium as this is just SO exciting. :-) Her sound is so nostalgic, tinged with folk and country. She has such a timeless voice I think.

So go listen folks!

We have some good friends that have always said how great M. Ward is as well. I need to listen to him some more. He has his own music as well.

ALSO, we have changed our travel plans AGAIN... we went from wanting to do Portland, OR, to going to Mexico, and now we're thinking NYC. We think this is a for sure thing now. I haven't been in YEARS and look forward to going with a new outlook. With new interests. I've already started doing some internet research, but wanted to throw this out there here on my blog as well. If any of you have any advice on cool artsy shops, thrift stores, craft supply stores, craft stores, cool places to eat, hip areas to see... PLEASE PLEASE share with me! :-) Also, any cool photo old school photo booths.. i found a couple already, but still wanted to ask! And anything else of interest that you'd think I'd like! We are going in June (the first week). So unfortunately we'll be missing Renegade. :-(

Thanks! And thanks so much for all of the embroidery love!

Danielle